Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-08-13
Standing On the Banks Of Ohsbar River
He Saw the Heavens Open.
lhe Employments of the SArctifsd in
Heaven What Are They7
fae Departed Christian Will iPurrus the
eamO Vocation rs On Earth.
This Is the Opinion Of Brooklyn Taber-
nacle's Great Pastor.
EMpIoYMENTs OF HEAVEN.

Y. Dewitt Talmage's sermon Tor MS
morning was on the ''Employments OF
Heaven and his text, the 1st verse,
Chapter |, of Ezekiel:
Now IL came to pass in the thirtieth year,
I'm the fourth month, In the fifth day OF the
month. as | was among the caPiFes oy Tie
river OF Cbebar, that the heavens were opened
Ezekiel, with others. had beer ex-
patrlated, and while in foreign slavery
was standing on the banks of the roy
al canal which he and other serfs had
been condemned to dig by the order
of NebuchadnNzar-this royal canal,
in the text, called the river OF Chebar;
the lllustrious exile had visions OF
heaven. Indeed, it is almost always
so that the brightest visions OF heaven
come not to those who are on the
mountain top of prosperity, but TO
some John on desolate Patmos, or to
some Paul in Mamertine dungeon, or
TO some Ezekiel standing on the banks
of a ditch he had been compelled to
dig-yea, to the weary, to the heart
broken, to those whom sorrow has
banished.
The text is very particular to give
us the exact time of the vision. 1t was
in the thirtieth year, and ia the fourth
month, and in the fifth day of the
month. So you have had visions of
earth you shall never forget. You re-
member the year, you remember the
month, you remember the day, you re-
member the hour. Why may we not
have some such vision this morning,
and it be in the sixth month and in
the fourth day of the month?
The question is often silently asked,
though perhaps never audibly pro-
pounded: What are our departed
Christian friends doing nowp" The
question is more easily answered than
you might perhaps suppose. Though
there has come no recent intelligence
from the Heavenly city, and we seem
dependent upon the story OF eighteen
centuries ago, still / think we may
from strongest inference decide what
are the present occupations Of our
transferred Kinsfolk.
After God has made a nature he
never eradicates the chief character
istics of its temperament. You never
knew a man sanguine in temperament
to become phlegmatic in temperament.
Conversion plants new principles in the
soul.
PAUL AND JOHN
are Just as different from each other
after conversion as they were before
conversion. II conversion does not
eradicate the prominent characters
tics of the temperament neither will
death eradicate them.
You have, then, only by a sum in
subtraction and a sum in addition to
decide what are the employments OF
your departed friends in the better
world. You are to subtract from them
all earthly grossness and all earthly
goodness, and then you are to come ts
the conclusion that they are doing now
in Heaven what in their best moments
they did on earth. The reason that SO
many people never start for Heaven is
because they could not stand it if they
got there, if it should turn out to
be the rigid aud formal place some
people photograph it.
We like to come to church, but we
would not want to stay here to next
Christmas. We like TO hear the Hal
leluiah chorus. but we would not want
to hear it all the tine for fifty centur-
les. 1t might be on some great occas-
ion it would be possibly comfortable to
wear a crown of gold weighing several
pounds, but il would be an atliction to
wear such II crown forever. In other
words, we run the description of
heaven into the ground while we make
thet which was intended as especial
and celebrative 10 be the exclusive en-
ployment of heaven. You might as
well. if asked to describe the habits of
American society, describe n Decora-
ton day. or a Fourth of July, or an
autumDal Thanksgiving as though it
were all the time that way.
am not going to speculate IN re-
gard to the future world, but / must by
inevitable laws of inference and de-
duction and common senses conclude
each other as we are now different,
aud hence that will be at least rs many
different employments "a the
CELESTIAL WORLD
as there are %employments here. Christ
is to be the great love. the great JOY,
the great rapture. the great worship OF
heaven; but will that abolish employ
ment? No more than loves on earth
paternal. filial, fr%aternal. copjugal
love abolish earthly occupation.
In the first place, ! remark that all
those of our departed Christian friends